STAR FOX: The Rising
by Mr Showtime
Summary: Star Fox meet their toughest and scariest mission yet. Please Read and Review
1. What the?

STAR FOX: The Rising.  
  
All was quiet on the Cornerian space cruiser. The huge, oval like ship floated across space to a secret location based a long way from the Lylat Sytem. Fairly little knowledge of the ship's journey was known. Why it was flying to this unknown destination was left unanswered. The large content of the ship's docking bay was also a complete mystery. Even the pilots of the cruiser had no idea of what they were doing.  
  
The only orders that they were given were to dump the very large, tube-like containers at the secret location and they were not allowed to see what they were. The crew did ask about what they were taking but the questions were turned away and they were told never to ask again.  
  
The control deck was mainly made up of silver floors, walls and ceilings with coloured buttons and switches covering the walls and control panels at the front. A screen showed the way forward in what looked to by nothing but the blackness of space and the bright stars burning far away. Two pilots dressed in blue shirts and trousers along with black ties were present at the controls. One was a beaver named Chuck and the other was a tiger named Jason. Chuck had just come back with some cups of coffee. "Here's something to pick us back up." Chuck said in a rough voice. He handed a cup to Jason and Jason placed it on the top of the dashboard of the control panel. "Thanks Chuck," said Jason in a smooth, low voice, "it's so hard staying awake doing all this." "Yeah and I don't know what the deal of this all is," Chuck said, "taking a bunch of large, metal tubes to some secret dumping ground outside the Lylat system? They don't even look that important to get rid of."  
  
"Thing are more then how they look," Jason said, "maybe…" "Maybe what?" Chuck asked him. "Maybe," Jason continued, "we could go down to the cargo hold and take a look at what we've got to remove." "Oh no you don't" Chuck protested, "you heard the General, we are restricted from looking." "At what?" Jason through back, "looking inside a bunch of subway pipes? What could be in there? Just confidential files…" "They look to large for stuff like that!" Chuck said. "Well, I am tired of waiting to find out." Jason left his piloting position and headed for the doors that lead to the cargo bay. Chuck leapt up and put his arm in the doorway blocking off Jason's path.  
  
"I'm not letting you go down there," Chuck said, "what if the General finds out?" "Don't worry my friend," Jason assured, "He's not going to know anything. "Come on Chuck, I know you want to find out what it is so let's go and take a little peek." Chuck lowered his hand. "Well I am now kind of wondering," Chuck began, "and no one will know that we took a small gander… OK then. Let's go."  
  
The walk down the stairs to the docking bay was very dim lighted and the cargo hold was even darker. As Chuck and Jason approached the docking bay they turned on their torches and headed into the bay. Chucks heart was racing but Jason remained calm as they walked up to the large tubes.  
  
The two tubes were extremely large like they were tankers used on trucks but were even larger than that. It looked as if cars could be driven into them and could be stored inside them sideways. Jason walked up to one of the tubes as Chuck watched from a distance. Jason saw a huge metal door with a pad lock on it. He took a crowbar leaning to the side of it and with a large swipe knocked the pad lock clean off the door. The door swung open and Jason peered inside. Chuck quietly walked up to the door with Jason and to a look inside. A large corridor could be seen that paved a way inside the tube. "Come on, let's go in" Jason said to Chuck and they both entered the tube.   
  
Chuck was shocked at what Jason and he found inside. "Coffins!" Chuck yelled in fright, "These damned things are filled with coffins!" "But why?" Jason wondered, "What is so secret about a bunch of corpses?"  
  
Jason walked over to one of the coffins that had been stacked along with others on two shelves at the sides on the corridor in the tube. Jason put a hand on one of the lids. "Jason?" Chuck said grabbing his arm that had touched the metal coffin, "This isn't a good idea. We know what we have to take now so let's get back to the deck. I hate it in here now." "Let me just have a glimpse." Jason replied before lifting the lid off the coffin you gazing at what was inside.  
  
A body of a grey badger dressed in a Cornerian army uniform lay in the coffin along with his helmet and pistol. "I don't like this anymore." Chuck said while pulling other arm in the direction of the door but Jason broke from the grip and looked around the tube some more. Chuck stood shivering tin the doorway his co-pilot began to open more coffins.  
  
Suddenly a door slamming noise could be heard from the other tube. Chuck peered from the doorway of the tube that he had opened and saw the other tube but its door was still closed. "Did you hear that Jason?" Chuck asked. "Hear what?" Jason asked back. "That noise, it came from the other tube. Jason turned around from the coffin that he was investigating and walked up to Chuck by the doorway.  
  
Then the body in the coffin unknowingly to the pilots began to move and slowly reached it's arm out of the coffin and lifted itself out of the coffin. Jason looked around and saw that all was quiet and nothing had been touched or changed in the docking bay. "Your hearing things Chuck." Jason said.  
  
Suddenly, Chuck had frozen. His eyes filled with fear and disbelief. "Chuck? Chuck?" Jason asked with a worrying look. "What's the matter?" Suddenly a laser gunshot came out of the tube and went right through the neck of Jason. Chuck screamed as a grey furred corpse of a squirrel came slowly towards him.  
  
Chuck ran as fast as he could and entered the control deck. He quickly pushed some buttons, grabbed a microphone and spoke and a rapid voice. "Help! Help! Mayday! Can anybody hear me? My ship is under attack be what seem to be zombies. I don't have much time but if you can help me my coordinates are…AGH!!! NO!!! STAY BACK!!! AGH!!!" The transmission breaks. 


	2. Introducing Star Fox

Morning soon came for the Star Fox team. Fox McCloud wearing nothing but a pair of green and red shorts woke up in his bedroom. He looked at the digital clock as he stretched out. "10 o' clock," He said, "2 hours earlier than usual."  
  
"Up already?" A voice came from Fox's bathroom. "Yeah Krystal I'm up." Krystal came out wearing a towel and from the look of her fur it was obvious that she'd been in the shower. "Don't you always get up at 2pm on a Saturday?" "It's 12pm Krys not 2." Fox said back. Fox got up from his bed and moved behind Krystal before hugging her and kissing her on the cheek. "It was nice last night wasn't it?" Fox said to Krystal. "Yeah, thanks for the romantic date last night. I really enjoyed it" Krystal said with a smile. "Sure, I enjoyed it as well. Especially the bedroom part."  
  
Suddenly a jolting noise was heard and the lights in the room went out. "Huh?" Fox responded, "What happened?" "Oh that's Peppy," Krystal said, "he trying to fix the power generator today." "But Slippy did it yesterday," Fox said. "Oh dear." Said Krystal.  
  
Down under the docking bay floor, "I told you I found a solution to the problem." Slippy argued to Peppy "Slippy, duct tape and pieces of chewing gum do not fix an electric generator." Peppy told Slippy while using a knife to cut away at the tape.  
  
"Well what do you suggest we use? The Star Fox budget only goes a certain length and this is the only solution until we get more funds." "Where did all the money go?" Peppy asked. "Into the new frame work for the ship, new Arwings, new Landmaster tank, replacement engine for the Blue Marine…" "This is ridiculous!" Peppy snapped, "We could afford all those things and not enough money for a new electric generator." "All we have left is some money for supplies and food that'll feed us for the next year, if we give that up for a generator we'll starve." Slippy said.  
  
Falco who was the first one up was making breakfast in the kitchen. He went back to wearing his old outfit of the traditional white jacket with the long sleeves. While he was cooking a breakfast of sausages, eggs and bacon he was muttering to himself.  
  
"I had to open my mouth," he said, "all I did was say that I had been gone for a while and that I learned how to cook in that while. Now I'm cooking breakfast for the whole team! Fox, his new babe Krystal, Peppy, Slippy and ROB! Geez I even cook for the robot! He doesn't even eat anything!" "Though I like to look at it." ROB said from behind him. "Yeah but that's not the point of food!" Falco snapped waving a frying pan at him.  
  
Peppy was still confidant that he could fix the generator. He grabbed some wire cutters and looked at the wiring at the side of the generator. There was a green, red and blue wire. He put his cutter to the blue wire first.  
  
"I wouldn't cut that if I were you." Slippy said to him. Peppy scowled at him and moved his cutter to the red wire. Slippy cleared his throat signalling to Peppy that that wire was also wrong. Peppy then lost it. "OK OK! Then it's got to be the f'ing stupid green wire. "Well go ahead." Slippy spoke in a calm voice and smiled was Peppy cut the wire. The Great Fox engine then cut out and shut down.  
  
Fox and Krystal were both dressed and entered the docking bay and saw Peppy and Slippy arguing over what happened. "This is your fault!" Peppy said aggressively. "Hey," Slippy fired back, "you were the one who cut the wire "Mr Fix-It"!" "OK guys enough!" Fox stepped in.  
  
"Fox! Slippy fixed the engine using chewing gum." Peppy said to Fox. "So?" Fox asked, "ABC gum is the only thing we can use to fix anything at the moment." "ABC?" Peppy asked. "Already Been Chewed." Fox answered to Peppy.  
  
Falco and ROB had set the table and Falco rolled up his sleeve to use is wrist-com.  
  
The rest of the team in the docking bay got a message on their wrist-coms. "COME AND GET IT! - Falco" the message read. "Falco's done breakfast," Fox said, "let's go everybody."  
  
Star Fox sat in the kitchen eating breakfast. The tabletop was a circular shape with a hologram dome in the middle, like the one on the control deck for mission briefings. Fox swallowed the egg he had eaten and put down his fork. "Something isn't right guys," Fox said, "Do you feel like we aren't moving?"  
  
"That's because Peppy cut the wire to the engine's power." Slippy said. "That thing was going to fall to its face sooner or later." Peppy said. "Yeah but we could have waited until it did!" Slippy argued.  
  
"Whoa! Whoa! Stop!" Fox snapped. He then calmed down and spoke again "OK, Slippy go back and fix the engine, Peppy let Slippy do what can be done that meets our current budget OK?" "OK Fox." Slippy and Peppy said.  
  
"It's been months, I need a mission." Falco said. "Well when the General gives us a call we'll have a job." Fox replied. Then the hologram dome powered up and General Pepper's face came up. "General Pepper here, a new mission has come up for you. We've recently lost contact with a large Cornerian army space cruiser. Before we lost contact we received this message."  
  
The sound of Chuck was then heard. Help! Help! (Buzz) Can anybody hear me? The ship (Buzz) under attack by what seem to (Buzz). I don't have much time (buzz) help me may coordinates are (Buzz) AGH!!!" "The transmission breaks there. We need you to find the ship on the outskirts of the Lylat System and find out what is going on." "OK General." Fox said. "We'll investigate." "Excellent Star Fox. As always you will be paid the normal fee for this mission, Pepper out." The transmission ends. "Come on guys," said Fox, "looks like another terrorist hijacking." How wrong they were going to be. 


	3. Uncovered Secrets

General Pepper flicked off the hologram in his office. The very large office that the General worked in was a very old fashioned office with wooden walls and giant bookcases with many books. The General who was dressed in the usual red suit with the hat to match turned around in his office chair to the window and looked out to the bright lights in the night that formed Corneria City. He looked down at the view in a worried fashion with a face that looked to have a lot on his mind.  
  
His assistant Katie walked into his office with a few papers. The female cat flicked through the papers before placing them on his desk. "Here are the papers for a mission to "remove" the cargo ship incident." The General turned around to her.  
  
"That won't be necessary," Pepper said to her, "I have given permission to Star Fox to go in and sort out the situation." Katie's did not like what she heard. "You mean you sent in a mercenary unit to deal with it." "Yes," said the General, "why is that a problem?"  
  
"Sir, all due respect but this is a serious matter. We just got the downloaded footage from the cargo ship's security cameras. There…there…loose in the ship." "I known Star Fox for too long to underestimate them. I am sure that they can deal with this situation."  
  
"But sir! What if they find out?" Katie asked. "That I was the one who started the experiments? What harm will it do?" "What if they sell their story to the press? We'll be ruined!" "Fox will do no such thing!" Pepper snapped. "And why are you even talking to me about this here? You know that this is a secret that is kept between you, military scientist personal and me in a separate facility." "Because this is an alarming time! You have just let a mercenary unit take on a mission with should be strictly confidential and taken by a special Cornerian division!" Katie argued back.  
  
"I've had enough of this. I want no more word of this until the next meeting. Understand? Dismissed!" General Pepper pointed to the door telling Katie to leave and she did.  
  
Outside in the hall, Katie tapped some buttons on her wrist-com. "Hello reception, please call all military scientist personal to the briefing room of an emergency meeting." 


	4. The Dead

The Great Fox was approaching the coordinates that were given of the cargo ship's whereabouts. Fox was sitting in his captain's chair with Krystal, Falco, Slippy and Peppy all at their positions around the control deck. "We're approaching the destination" Peppy said to Fox. "OK guys, keep your eyes open." "I see the ship." Krystal said pointing to the side of the front window. "Slippy, can you examine the ship for life forms?" Fox asked to Slippy. "I'm on it." Slippy replied tapping a few buttons of the control panel. "So what are we doing on that cargo ship? Is it a hijack? Hostage situation? Both?" "Guys," Slippy called, "I just did a life form check and get this? There is a life on the ship whatsoever." Fox raised an eyebrow for a response. "No life?" Fox asked Slippy. "Nothing." Slippy said. "OK guy's," Fox said, "looks like we'll have to board." "Hold up Fox," Peppy said, "how do we know it's save for us to be on that ship?" "I've just done another check," Slippy said, "according to these readings the oxygen levels are still OK. We'll be fine going aboard."  
  
The Great Fox then turned towards the large cruiser and entered through an entryway in the ship. The Great Fox flew down the huge corridor and approached a massive landing zone at the end. Star Fox waited for the on-board computer of the cruiser to give them permission to exit the ship and walk out onto the deck. The permission was granted and they walked out of the Great Fox onto the deck. The large docking area had emerald green glowing walls with another ship parked on the other side of the deck. "That must be the cruiser's escape ship." Peppy said, "But whoever was here didn't have time to escape what happened to them." "Load up Star Fox." Fox said as Krystal, Falco, Slippy, Peppy and him they all grabbed their pistols and reloaded new plasma energy cartridges into them.  
  
Three large doors were located in front of them. One was marked "cargo bay", another was marked "control deck" and the other "power generator". "OK guys," Fox began again, "Krystal, Falco and me will take the cargo bay, you guys take the control deck." "OK Fox" replied Peppy and Slippy and him set off to the control deck.  
  
Fox, Falco and Krystal found the cargo bay. It was dark but most things were visible including the large subway-like tubes that stood in the middle of the bay and taking up most of the room. "I'll take a look on the balcony." Falco said and went up to a metal ladder to the balcony. "OK Krystal your with me." Fox said and the foxes went up to the tubes. One of the tubes now had its large metal door completely smashed open and badly damaged while the other has still open from before. Fox walked into the tube with the smashed door and saw nothing but empty coffins with their lids ripped off littering the corridor and the shelves that they had been resting on. "Fox! Look at this!" Krystal shouted to Fox.  
  
Fox ran up to her who has standing at the entrance to the second tube. Blood was covered all over the floor with a blue Cornerian army hat soaked on blood in it. Then Fox saw footprints of blood leaving the tube and going off down another corridor. Fox and Krystal could not believe what they saw. "Its like whoever was killed… walked off down that corridor… on his own." Krystal said in a worried voice. Fox looked confused. "But… that's not possible," Fox said after a while, "It's… not possible." "I see nothing up here!" Falco yelled from the top of the balcony. "Falco! Take a look at this!" Krystal shouted to Falco and he made his way down. Unknowing to Falco, something in a dark corner was watching him from on the balcony. Its scarlet piercing eyes watched him walk down the ladder and join Fox and Krystal who showed him what they had found.  
  
Peppy and Slippy had entered the control deck and had also found huge amounts of blood that had been splattered around the control deck. The huge bloodstain was found on the control panel around a microphone and all on the control panel. Footprints of blood were also found walking back out of the floor walking out of the room. "This is horrible." Slippy said. "Yeah," Peppy said to Slippy, "and from the looks of the blood, the victim just came to life again and walked out the door but nobody could be alive after suffering that much blood loss." Slippy took a wire out of his wrist-com and plugged it into a part of the control panel that wasn't covered on blood. "I'm gonna check the security cameras." Peppy eyed each of the bloody footprints and followed them to the door. "I'm going to check out these footprints." Peppy said. "OK," said Slippy pointing to his wrist-com, "keep in touch."  
  
Fox, Falco and Krystal were also following a set of bloodstained footprints that had lead them down a hall were and approaching another cargo bay. Suddenly as they got closer the sound of low pitched groaning noises were heard. "I don't like this." Krystal said to Fox grabbing his hand. Fox lifted put his other hand on Krystal's trying to keep her calm. "Don't worry I'm here." "Fox, I don't want to go any further." Fox turned around to her. "Alright, you stay here. Falco and me will go and see what's down here."  
  
Peppy was following the tracks of blood until he found himself on a closed off balcony which had glass blocking off any entry to where he was, another cargo bay. He looked through the window and saw the most horrific sight that he had ever seen in his life.  
  
Slippy who was watching the security playback and his wrist had the look of fear in his face as he saw grey furry corpses digging away at the defenceless pilot Chuck and leaving him to die at his control panel. Then to his horror the body of Chuck turned a stone grey colour and began to walk around. He then looked up at the security camera and stared at it with a pair of hell-like scarlet eyes. Suddenly came the moment that almost gave Slippy a heart attack. A tentacle of some sort lept out of his chest and smashed the camera ending the playback and Slippy's wrist-com. Slippy was shaking like jelly and sweat came pouring out of the sides of his head. He ran as fast as he could from the room to find Peppy.  
  
Fox and Falco had also found the docking bay and saw the nightmarish scene of what Peppy was seeing from the balcony. The large room was filled with stone grey body all standing with their heads pointing down to the floor and their eyes shut. Suddenly one of them walked up to a high middle section that over-looked what looked like thousands and thousands of living corpses. It was a grey racoon that was dressed in red and was carrying an assault rifle. "My brothers and sisters!" He began looking down at the dead army. "We have been robbed of what was once ours! If it was not for our living enemies we would still be alive! But now we can thank the living for taking away our souls of making us immortal! My brothers and sisters! We are united in death! As we were in life in the Lylat war years ago! But now we are united in death and we have been given invincibility! We can now destroy the ones that need avenging! Especially the one known as Pepper! We will now take the Lylat System and the dead shall rule over the living! We cannot be stopped! We cannot be defeated!  
  
"WE… ARE… THE DEAD!!!"  
  
A huge roar came from the zombies as Fox, Falco and Peppy looked on in horror. 


	5. Pulling out

Krystal was all by herself in the hall. She when heard the echoing sound of the army of living corpses cheering in a horrible way. She began to shake and looked around wondering if she should run back to the Great Fox where it is safe. Then she heard a close groaning noise that felt very close to her. She was quite frightened now.  
  
"That's it," she whispered to herself, "I'm out of here." She turned around and froze at watch she saw behind her, a horrific looking tiger zombie with a ripped up and bloodstained Cornerian uniform. A hole was spotted in his neck that went right through it and you could see the light of the other end of the corridor through it.  
  
The grey zombie then opened its eyes showing the frightening scarlet colour that shined and reflected off Krystal's blue fur. Krystal was shaking violently as she backed away from the zombie that she slowly walking towards her. Krystal was backed into a wall and the zombie grabbed her arm. "Agh! Let go of me!" Krystal shouted but the zombie didn't and then a he showed his other hand to Krystal and it began to mutate into something else.  
  
The zombie's hand had turned into a large claw. The zombie then was about it thrust it into Krystal's head but then Krystal grabbed her staff from out of her Star Fox jacket and whacked the arm clean off the zombie. The arm flew through the air before hitting the wall and falling to the ground, by then it had stopped moving.  
  
The zombie howled and where its arm where it had once been, red, green and yellow ooze began flowing out of it and masses of it were pouring to the floor. Krystal did not want to wait around for something else to happen and ran as fast as she could back to the docking bay.  
  
Fox and Falco were watching the zombie army listening to what they saw as some kind of leader. The howl of the zombie that Krystal encountered bellowed through the hall that Fox and Falco were watching. All the thousands of zombies turned around and saw Fox and Falco. "Intruders!" Yelled one of the zombies. "Another one!" yelled another zombie staring up at the balcony where Peppy was watching.  
  
"Run!" yelled Fox and they all disappeared from sight. "Get them!" Yelled the leader zombie and the mass of corpses began chasing after Fox and Falco.  
  
Peppy ran down a separate corridor above the cargo bay and ran into Slippy. "Peppy! Thank goodness, we've got to get off this ship it's full of…" "I know, I know," Peppy interrupted, "zombies! Now let's get back to the ship!" Peppy grabbed Slippy's arm and began to run dragging Slippy behind him.  
  
Fox, Falco were running and found the zombie that had its arm ripped off. Falco ran up to it and kicked it back to the ground and gave Fox and him a chance to escape.  
  
Peppy and Slippy ran towards the docking bay and found Krystal. "Krystal! We need a get out of here!" Peppy said in a panic. "I know but we have a problem." Krystal said and pointed to the docking bay from inside the corridor.   
  
Another zombie horde had got loose and had surrounded the Great Fox. The grey furred corpses made sure that nobody could get through. Fox and Falco had made it to the corridor and ran up to the rest of the team. "What's the hold up?" Falco asked. "Shhh!" said Krystal and pointed to the zombies around the Great Fox. "Great," Fox whispered, "now what do we do?"  
  
Fox looked around and at the zombies surrounding their only chance of escape. Then he noticed something, a crack in the floor. "I've got an idea, Slippy, do you have that bomb we were trying to test out?" "You mean the S-mine?" Slippy replied, "Sure, I have it."  
  
We reached into his backpack and brought out a black ball no bigger than a baseball. Slippy then press some buttons on his wrist-com and eight legs sprang out of the ball. He put it on the floor and used the buttons on his wrist-com to move it around. The S-mine walked quickly up to the horde of zombies and made it's way to the centre of the group. Then a zombie noticed it and growled at the ball but before it could do anything Slippy pressed a button. The ball made a massive explosion throwing mindless corpses everywhere.   
  
"Let's go!" Fox yelled and the Star Fox team made a run for the Great Fox. Suddenly as they ran onto the docking panel the crack in it began to get worse and the weight of the Great Fox was bending it. "Hurry!" yelled Fox again, "It's gonna give way!" Some of the zombies were able to make it to their feet and began running after the Star Fox team. Fox, Falco, Slippy, Peppy made it and Krystal came on but not before kicking off a zombie's severed arm that had grabbed her leg. Star Fox made it onto the control deck and Fox leapt into his captain's chair. "Come on guys! Let's get out of here!"  
  
The Great Fox took to the air with some of the zombies hanging on to the wings of the ship but they soon lost their grip and fell down a drop that looked to be a thousand feet deep. The zombies walked onto the docking panel to show their anger at the escaping mercenary ship but suddenly the panel gave way and some of the zombies plummeted to the floor a thousand feet below.  
  
Back on the Great Fox the team were exhausted and scared from what they had encountered. "We've gotta warn the General." Fox said breaking the short silence, "it'll take ages to get back to Corneria." Peppy then looked out of the control deck window and was shocked to see what was outside. "Not as long as you think." Peppy said and they saw the zombie infested cruiser heading for Corneria… AND ALMOST THERE! 


	6. From bad, to worse, to awful

Back at the Cornerian army base an emergency meeting was being held with the General's assistant Katie and all the Cornerian army scientists. All together there was eleven people in the conference room. The ten scientists were dressed like Cornerian soldiers but with white tags on their uniforms saying whom they were. Katie was wearing a blue jacket with a blue and white jumpsuit underneath. The meeting room had Cornerian flags hanging from the walls and the room was mostly a light blue colour.  
  
Suddenly during the talking between scientists and Katie, General Pepper stormed onto the meeting room and saw what was happening. "What is the meaning of this?" Pepper said, "I never called a meeting now. Why wasn't I informed about this?" "That doesn't matter." Katie said to the General, "We now have a problem." "We sure do," Pepper said, "we've just received word that the cargo ship carrying the former test subjects his coming back to Corneria and Star Fox have confirmed have the bodies have come to life!" "But that's not our problem." Katie said which made the General worry a little.  
  
"Wh- What?" The General asked, "Then what is the problem?" Katie then pulled a dart gun from inside her blue jacket. "You!" Katie said sharply before pulling the trigger and shooting a dart into the General's neck. The red suited canine then fell to the floor and lost consciousness. "Katie then turned to the scientist. "This is it gentlemen," she said evilly, "Phase one of our plan is complete. Please give me word when our army of the dead arrives." She then turned around to where Pepper was lying on the ground. "Oh and somebody find a good hiding place for the soon-to-be former General. "Two scientists then ran up and carried the General away.  
  
Outside the army base, the Great Fox landed outside. The base was unusually quiet and nobody was guarding the large area of warehouses, airstrips and the large central command building that was 50 storeys high. "That's odd," said Fox looking out of the control deck window, "nobody's around." Star Fox walked out of the Great Fox that had come to a halt on a huge landing pad. A cold wind blew around them and from where they were standing they were able to see the lights of Corneria City in the night since the base was located on a mountaintop that overlooked the city. Fox looked around and then walked up to a security post that was close to the landing pad. No one was there, no guard or anything, not even a robot. Fox turned around to the team. "Well," he said, "I guess we're just walking in."  
  
"Fox!" yelled Krystal, "Look!" She pointed at the sky and they all turned to see the large cargo ship coming into the Cornerain airspace. "We don't have much time," Fox said in a hurry, "Let's go!"  
  
Fox, Falco, Krystal, Peppy and Slippy ran up to central commands entrance. The doors opened for them and they entered. It was horribly quiet inside the huge reception area. Usually there would be somebody at the front desk but nobody was there. Fox ran through the multi-blue coloured room and leaned open the wooden desk seeing if anybody was around. "Hello?" Fox yelled, "Anybody there?" "I don't like this Fox," Peppy said, "This isn't like the Cornerian nightshift. No guards and no staff?" Fox turned around, "Come on guys," Fox instructed, "the General said he wanted to see us here so he's gotta be around here somewhere. He's probably in his office."  
  
Star Fox journeyed further into the base and finally found the General's office. It was marked in gold and the front of the patterned and varnished wooden door that stood out in the light-blue hallway from all the other plain, wooden doors that had been painted black. Star Fox were all stood outside the door. "You reckon he's in there?" Falco asked Fox. "Only one way to find out." Fox said turning the knob. The door opened with a little squeaking noise until it had finally fully opened. The room was partially black with only the light of the stars outside the window lighting up the room. A big black chair stood at the end of the room and it was rocking back and forth.  
  
Fox ran up to the desk. "General, thanks goodness. Why is he base down? Where is everybody?" Fox asked in a panic. Suddenly the chair swung around and in it was Katie. "Sorry but the General isn't around at the moment." Katie said with a smirk. "Well, where is he?" Peppy asked. The sound of rifles then filled the room. The Star Fox team then turned around and saw men pointing guns at them. "Oh but don't worry Star Fox," Katie continued, "You will be seeing him soon enough before you die." 


	7. Captured

Star Fox were handcuffed and dragged into an underground prison underneath the base. Again it was blue coloured but it had no windows. It looked like the walls, floor and ceiling were made of a mixture of concrete and metal. The men taking Star Fox were dressed in black and were wearing night vision goggles on their foreheads just above where they would put them over their eyes. They stopped and one of the henchmen walked up to a keypad and typed in a code. A metal door opened and then Star Fox were thrown in. The men walked off but one looked through the door at Star Fox, put down his night vision goggles, loaded his silenced machine gun with a new clip and slammed the prison cell door.  
  
Darkness fell in the cell and the only light came from light blue streams of light of the outside lights coming from a barred off hatch. Star Fox sat up from the floor and sat against the sidewalls of the cell. "Well this is great isn't it?" Falco said sarcastically. "I can't believe this is all happening," Krystal said, "zombies and these strange happening. It doesn't make any sense." Slippy then looked to is right and saw something. "Agh!" Slippy shouted, "a dead body!" They all looked at the dark man sitting motionless by the side of Slippy. "Wait, he looks familiar." Peppy said. "I don't care! Get away!" Slippy yelled and kicked the "body" away with his right foot. It fell into the light stream and his hat fell off making him more recognisable.  
  
"General Pepper!" Fox said in surprise. Then the General woke up and groaned as he did. "Huh?" he said first and began trying to sit himself up, "F-Fox? Krystal? Star Fox?" he asked, "what are you doing here?" "We were captured by your little assistant and her friends," Falco said, "what happened to you?" "She darted me and locked me up in this retched cell. She wants to take over the Lylat System with these zombie that we made." "We?" asked Fox.  
  
The General hanged his head after Fox spoke. "It was a few months after the Lylat war. The Cornerian army was in financial trouble because of what we had lost and had to replace. We had no money what so ever and we couldn't stand on the funds that we had. Then Katie Romaro, an owner of a research company that did biological testing and create things from chemical weapons to washing powder. She offered us a big monthly paycheck to the Cornerian army that would see us get through our money problems. I foolishly accepted to in return for the money we sent off our military personal to secret labs to have them be test subjects for Katie's chemical substances. I thought I was doing the right thing so in return again I made Katie Assistant General to our Cornerian forces. A few years later I had heard that millions of my personal had died tragically in a chemical test. Due to the state that the bodies were in we decided that they shouldn't be return to their families for burial. We gave the families and news media fake news that they had died after their ship they had been travelling on blew up and that gave us an excuse to why we couldn't return any bodies. We then started a secret department inside the army that was able to transport the corpses to a secret location outside the Lylat System. All was going well until now and from the looks of it Katie has something evil in mind with these living corpses."  
  
"Well we can't just sit here we've gotta do something." Fox said rising to his feet. "Well I know how we can all get out of these cuffs." General Pepper said. Then he shook his sleeve and I cigarette lighter fell out. Then from behind his back he took the lighter, flipped its lid and pressed a button inside but instead of a flame it was a laser. He then used it to cut through the metal cuffs and was free. "Nice one General." said Slippy.  
  
The corridor was quiet with only one henchmen standing guard at the cells. Fox peered over the corner and saw the man on guard. Fox then saw an empty beer bottle by his foot and picked it up. He then slowly sneaked up towards the guard and then Fox smashed the guard over the head with the bottle sending brown glass shards everywhere and soon the henchman was down and out.  
  
"All clear." Fox said and General Pepper and the rest of the Star Fox team came walking up the corridor. Fox saw his and his and his team's pistols hanging on the wall by the guard and picked them up to give back to the team and him. The General helped himself to the silenced machine gun that the guard had. "OK everybody," Fox began, "we need to leave, now!" Suddenly, the guard on the floor then slowly started crawling up to the wall where a red button was and pressed it before falling unconscious again. An alarm went off in the whole base on the corridors were filled with red flashing lights. "Oh no." Krystal said. "Guess I won't be needing this." Said the General as he unscrewed the silencer off his gun. "Let's go!" shouted Fox and the team and Pepper left the prison sector.  
  
Outside in the base grounds the place was full of movement as Katie's men were rushing around trying to find the escapees. Star Fox and General Pepper were hiding in a small alleyway between two army warehouses. Fox peered around the corner at the end and saw the Great Fox being guarded by black henchmen on the huge landing pad. "Damn," Fox cursed, "they've got the ship surrounded."  
  
"Hey look." Peppy said and the ship giant ship carrying the zombies was coming from behind them. It roared as the ship came over them. Them it and stopped and the whole sky was hidden from the base. Suddenly some hatches opened and zombies jumped from the ship and began landing in the grounds. As they gathered in a bunch as Katie walked towards them along with more henchmen. Fox then turned to Slippy, Peppy, Falco, Krystal and Pepper. "Guys," Fox said, "I think this is it." 


	8. Escape

"It's now or never everybody," Fox said with confidence, "the fate of the Lylat System is in our hands again." "But we can't stop this Fox," Peppy said, "there're too many enemies this time and this is the most powerful foe yet." "Hey come on guys," Fox said, "we once took on the whole Venom army. If we can do that then we can do this!" "Your right Fox" Falco said fixing his pistol. "Let do this." General Pepper said reloading his machine gun.  
  
Katie with her henchmen were approaching the horde of zombies. She then stood a few metres in front of them and the zombie turned to see her. "Look at this," Katie said to one of her henchmen, "I now own a whole army that is powerful enough for world domination and beyond." She then stood up on a platform and the zombies look on. "My legions you have done well," she began, "now continue your path of destruction and take it to Corneria City!"  
  
The zombies though just stood there and were still looking at her. "Well what are you waiting for?" she asked, "I'm your new General and I order you all to attack!" "We have no leader!" yelled one of the zombies and the thousands of living corpses began to approach her and her henchmen. "What? This cannot be…I…I?" The zombies then began attacking her henchmen and started killing them. "They shouldn't be doing this," Katie said in disbelief, "enough! Fire!" The henchmen began trying to shoot the zombies but the bullets they fired went through the bodies with no effect and they fell victim to the large horde of zombies. Katie tried to escape but by the time she reacted she was surrounded by the stone coloured corpses. She screamed as the living dead grabbed her, dragged her to the floor and ripped her to pieces limb from limb.  
  
Star Fox and the General watched in horror at the events that had unfolded. "Come on," said the General, "we have to get to central command." Star Fox and General Pepper made a break for it and ran out of the alleyway. Suddenly a zombie turned around and the stone coloured corpse saw them running for the large building. "Meat!" he yelled pointing a there direction and the horde started running after them.  
  
Once inside Peppy went up to a keypad at the side of the glass doors. Then he typed a number and the glass doors were closed off with a large steel blast door. The zombies tried to run up and smash through the glass but were crushed under the width of the door sending a layer of yellow, red and green ooze between the glass and the steel door. "Nice one Peppy." Falco said. "Come on let's go." Fox yelled at they ran down the reception area.  
  
The zombies outside were bashing away at the steel door but it wouldn't move so then they decided to climb the building instead.  
  
Star Fox then entered the General's office on the fiftieth floor of central command. The General ran to his desk and started tapping the desk in a certain code. "What are you doing?" asked Krystal. "I'm sending a warning to Corneria City and other major cities. We're going to evacuate the planet." Then after the General stopped tapping a door opened in the middle of the table that revealed a red button. He pressed it and the button lit up. A war siren was heard from outside wailing up and down in pitch. "The warning is out, now let's get moving." Said the General and ran up to a bookshelf. He then pulled a book out of the shelf and opened it but instead of pages it was a small box with a keypad inside. He typed another code and the bookshelf opened up revealing an elevator.  
  
Suddenly a zombie appeared at the window and smashed it open with its bear hands. It scowled at the Star Fox team with its scarlet eyes. Fox then took his pistol and shot the zombie and it fell out of the window frame. Fox looked through the window and saw the horde of zombies climbing the building. Some remained at the bottom cheering on the zombies that were climbing.  
  
"Into the elevator quick," yelled Pepper, "it will take us directly to the armoury!" They all got into the elevator and the door closed. A few zombies climbed through the window ready to attack Star Fox and the General but were a few moments too late.  
  
The elevator dropped the General and Star Fox off at the armoury as Pepper said. The warehouse-like room was filled with machine guns, rocket launchers, shotguns, sniper rifles, uzis and even an army jeep parked in the middle of the room.  
  
"I think we'll be safe here." Said General Pepper. Suddenly large banging noises came from the main doors of the armoury. "Or not." Said Falco. "There's only one way now and that's through," Fox said, "everybody grab some weapons and armour."  
  
Krystal helped herself to a pair of uzis, Fox grabbed a large minigun standing in the corner and loaded it with a box of bullets, Falco jumped onto the jeep and found the on-board machine gun that was placed between the driver and passenger seats, Slippy found a rocket launcher and loaded it of with rockets and Peppy held a shotgun under his arm as he examined the explosive shells that it took.  
  
"I guess I'll drive." Said the General jumping into the driver seat and fiddling with the steeling wheel. Star Fox jumped on board the jeep with Slippy, Krystal and Peppy sitting in the back and Fox taking the front passenger seat. "I've not driven these in a while so you'll have to excuse me." General Pepper said after starting the engine.  
  
The zombies were all at the armoury door pounding onto it. Two zombies carried a rock between them and threw it making a dent in the metal door. Suddenly the jeep came bashing through it sending a few zombie flying backwards or getting crushed as the metal doors slammed onto the wall. The General drove the jeep through the mass army of the dead and crushing all that got in its way. Star Fox opened fire on most of the zombies as they drove passed. Peppy loaded a round and shot a zombie clean in the chest but was shocked it see in stand up again with its chest completely ripped open. Suddenly a zombie jumped onto the bonnet of the jeep. It looked at Fox with its scarlet eyes and started growling and banging on the windshield. Fox took his minigun and shot it off the windshield. After hitting the floor to rose up to it's feet again but Slippy launched a rocket and blew it to pieces.  
  
The Great Fox was a few metres away and more zombies were coming. The General then noticed a ramp at the edge of the landing pad. "Hold on Star Fox!" yelled the General and the jeep flew off the ramp and landing perfectly onto the Great Fox's docking bay floor.  
  
As they got out of the jeep, Fox noticed ships taking off and leaving the planet far into the distance. The General noticed him watching and took a quick look. "Excellent, the planet got the message," the General said, "now let's make our escape before something happens to us."  
  
The Great Fox took off leaving another zombie horde yelling at the ship. Slippy looked out of a window on the Great Fox and saw more zombies leaving the base and heading towards the city. More and more of them just seem to appear. Slippy looked very worried as the Great Fox left the Cornerian atmosphere. 


	9. Katina: Hell's New Neighbour

The Great Fox left Corneria and joined up with a huge armada of ships. Corneria had been successfully evacuated. Star Fox were once again all present at the command deck but this time General Pepper was joining them and sitting on a spare chair in the corner. Fox spun around to face General Pepper. "So," Fox began, "where do we go from here?" "Katina," the General answered, "we can seek help there. It's also where Katie sent our Cornerian troops so with them out of the way Corneria was easy to take."  
  
"Guys, look at this." Peppy said grabbing the team and the General's attention. Peppy put a picture of Corneria on the screen. It was a mainly blue planet and had large amounts of cloud on it. Suddenly the blue of the planet started to disappear and the planet was turning a horrible grey. It was obvious that the zombies where taking over and were killing everything that was alive on the planet. The General stood up and looked at the screen. A tear came from his eye and dropped down the side of his face as he saw the last blue colouring of the planet disappear and turn into an intimidating grey. "I don't believe it," the General slowly said, "the planet that I dedicated myself to protect is the planet that I destroyed with my carelessness." Fox and the team looked at the General before turning back to the monitor and watching the planets white clouds turn into a ghastly scarlet.  
  
The Great Fox finally arrived in Katina's airspace and docked in the Katina army indoor landing zone. The rest of the space armada moved towards the edge of Katina City.  
  
As the Star Fox team left the Great Fox they were greeted by a familiar face. "Hey Fox, you made it!" said Bill Grey. "Hey Bill, nice to see you again." Fox said shaking his hand. "I heard all about what was going down on Corneria." Bill said, "Did everybody make it out of there?" "As far as we know they did." The General said, "now could you please take me to General Goat? This is an emergency." "Sure," replied Bill, "I'll take you. Oh Fox I'll catch you later and will talk OK?"  
  
While the Great Fox rested in the giant Katinain docking bay, Star Fox settled back down to usual business but knowing that the zombies had taken a whole planet in less then a day dimmed the mood a little with the Star Fox team.  
  
Krystal went into her sleeping quarters and locked the door. She then undressed and went into her bathroom to turn on the shower. Suddenly she heard a grunting noise that sounded quite weak but shrugged to off as she entered the shower.  
  
Peppy, Falco, Slippy and Fox were in the command deck configuring with the Great Fox's auto-repair unit. The ship had taken some damage as it escaped from the army base now under the control of zombies. Falco had a cup of coffee in his hand as he tapped some buttons on his computer. After taking a sip he looked out of the window watching some military pilots getting a final briefing from their commanding officer. "Something tells me this is it." Falco said to his teammates. "What's it?" Slippy asked turning away from his computer. "The end of the Lylat system." Falco said quietly. "Well we can't just give up," Peppy said, "like Fox said if we could take on Andross then we can do anything, right Fox?" Fox sat in his captain's chair and stroke the yellow leather on the arm. "I'm starting to have my doubts now." Fox said lifting his head to face the team. The three looked at Fox with a feel a disbelief. The fox they saw as a great leader was looking to finally admit defeat.  
  
Krystal was still in the shower in was in the middle of washing her hair. Another grunt could be heard that stopped Krystal. She opened her eyes but then a small amount of shampoo suds caught her eye and the sting had Krystal let out a small sound of pain. She then ignored the grunting again and continued scraping the shampoo out of her hair and now her eye.  
  
"There's no stopping them," Falco said, "I shot tons of zombies and none of those dead things cared about the lead I pumped into them. "It's strange," Slippy said, "everything in existence has a weakness. Everything… and it should include those zombies."  
  
Krystal turned the knob to the off position in the shower. By now she had dried herself off and was wearing a white dressing gown. She then started folding up her clothes on her bed ready for another day and that was when she heard the grunting again, this time louder. The heart suddenly began racing as she grabbed her pistol. She slowly went up to the door of her bathroom and put her back to the wall. She held her gun up and then quickly pointed her gun through the door. She then saw that nothing was there and lowered her sidearm. She breathed a sigh of relief before turning around to look at her bed. Suddenly something jumped down from the ceiling of the bathroom and growled at Krystal from behind. She turned around and let out a scream that the whole ship could here. 


	10. Answers and Questions

Krystal shook in fear with her eyes wide open at the sight of the zombie that had managed to climb aboard undetected. The scarlet eyes again were set on Krystal and reflecting off her dressing gown.  
  
The zombie then grabbed Krystal by the neck and through her into the wall. He then lifted his other hand to reveal a claw with knife like fingers and something that looked like a mouth on the palm. The zombie then moved his hand and softly placed one of the knife-like fingers onto Krystal's neck and pushed it so that it looked ready to cut through her. Krystal grabbed the zombie's arm trying to push away the claw but the zombie grabbed one arm and pulled it away weakening the vixen's grip.  
  
Suddenly before the stone-grey monstrosity could sink his claw into the Krystal's neck, a laser shot came from the direction of the door blowing away the zombie's neck and causing it to explode into a ghastly flying display of grey flesh with red, yellow and green fluids. The head then fell off after the now visible neck bones failed to hold the weight. The zombie's body then panicked and began feeling around where its head had formerly been before falling to the ground and lying perfectly still.  
  
Fox lowered his laser-gun and ran over to Krystal who was covered in red, yellow and green ooze. She curled up against the wall on the floor with a scared look on her face. Fox then kneeled beside her and put his hand on her shoulder. "Are you OK?" Fox asked. Krystal looked up at Fox with tears running down her face. She then hugged Fox as tight as she could and cried heavily on Fox's shoulder. Fox put an arm around her as he scanned his gun around the room but all he saw was the scarlet eyes fading away in the now decapitated head of the zombie.  
  
"6:30a.m Katina time, Dr. George Huss of the Katinian army post-mortem unit," a doctor said into a recorder, "the subject is what seems to be an infected corpse that had the ability to come back to life. I am here to find out why and brief the administration on my findings."  
  
The post-mortem unit of the Katinain army was full of people. Some of the crowd being General Pepper, Katinain General Goat, Bill Grey and the Star Fox team. They watched through a glass wall as they saw the examination of the decapitated corpse going underway. General Goat fiddled with his glasses as he stood next to General Pepper and watched what corpse being opened up doctors. "With this body we may able to see what we are up against." Said Goat. "I think we already know what," the General said back, "a zombie race that relies on brain function to keep them going." "Well I called this examination just to be on the safe side."  
  
"Krystal?" Fox said. "Yes Fox?" "Could you come with me?" Fox asked. Fox and Krystal left the room leaving Falco, Slippy and Peppy watching the post-mortem.  
  
There was a corridor outside the room. It was a mainly orange hall with pairs of large metal orange doors going down it. Fox and Krystal walked into the hall hand in hand. They both sat down on a wooden bench next to a large plant. A large glass window that turned the hall into a triangle shape gave the light from the sun. From where they were sitting they could see a large desert land with the large modern buildings of Katina City providing that life was in the desert.  
  
"It's nice out there isn't it?" Fox said to Krystal breaking a short silence. "Yes" said Krystal, "but I mostly like it at night when the stars are out." "Are you alright from…?" "Yes, yes I'm fine Fox. Just don't remind me about it." "Sorry," Fox said, "it's still scaring me that I almost lost you." "I know," Krystal said, "So why did you bring me out here?" "Because of what happened," Fox said, "and it started to make me think. This threat might not just kill you it may kill all of us," Fox then held Krystal's hand, "and if we don't make it through this time I want us to go together." Krystal turned to face Fox. "What are you talking about?" Fox then got off the bench and went down on one knee. Krystal's face drew a smile as Fox pulled a small navy-blue box out of his white sleeveless Star Fox jacket. He opened it showing a golden ring with a diamond placed perfectly in the middle.  
  
"Krystal…will you marry me?" 


	11. Bringing together, tearing apart?

In a small room in the Katina army base a small wedding was being held. Bill Grey, Falco, Peppy and Slippy were the only ones in attendance watching the bringing together of Fox and Krystal. Fox was dressed as normal with his green jumpsuit and white Star Fox jacket but had been cleaned for the occasion. Krystal though was in a wedding dress. The room was bare with no furnishing and the only thing that made the room look interesting was the large glass wall showing the sunset outside and a judge doing the proceedings. It was hard thinking that there was a time for such an event because of the zombie threat.  
  
"I now pronounces you man and wife," the judge said ending the service, "You may kiss the bride."  
  
Fox kissed Krystal and that ended the short service.  
  
Fox was sat outside the pyramid shaped Katina army base on the steps leading up to it. He was twisting around the wedding ring that Fox now had in his wedding finger. It reflected the sun in a strobe lighting effect as he waved it around in the sunlight. He then looked up to the sky and saw the now infested Corneria with its grey surface and scarlet clouds. Now it had what looked to be grey mist circling the planet.  
  
Krystal came back after changing her clothes to a dark blue jumpsuit and a sleeveless Star Fox jacket. She sat next to Fox and put her head on his shoulder and also looked up at the lifeless Corneria. Fox held Krystal's hand and rubbed it with his fingers as they watched.  
  
"Well," Fox began, "even Venom looks better than Corneria now." "What are we going to do Fox?" Krystal asked, "Those creatures are capable of doing anything. They could take the whole Lylat System if they wanted to." Fox lent his head on Krystal's. "I think that's what they want to do." Fox said tightening the grip on Krystal's hand. They both looked at each other in a sorrow and loving fashion for a second.  
  
"Well isn't this romantic?" a voice came from the doors of the Katina base. A human came out and approached them. He was a semi-black man with black hair. He wore a black sleeveless leather jacket with a white t-shirt and blue jeans.  
  
"Do you mind?" Fox said scowling at him, "can't we have a little privacy please?" "Sorry pal, I couldn't resist." The human said, "The names Dexter," the human said in an American accent, "Dexter Helms. I see you guys tied the knot." Dexter said looking at the rings on the hands of Fox and Krystal. "Yeah we did." Krystal said. "You aren't the only ones, every couple signed onto the front line is getting hitched."  
  
"Front line?" Fox questioned. Dexter took a cigarette and lit it with a metal cigarette lighter. "Yeah, haven't you heard?" Dexter took a suck of his cig and breathed out some smoke, "The Generals are setting up a counter attack. Some of the best pilots and soldier in the Lylat coalition army are going down to that zombie breeding ground."  
  
Fox and Krystal stood up and looked at Dexter. "Are you going?" Fox asked Dexter. "Yep," Dexter said, "and believe it or not am the only man in the counter attack fleet that's not a married man." "Gosh, I'm sorry I guess." Krystal said. "Don't worry," Dexter replied, "I'll live… hopefully."  
  
"Do you know if we are on the list?" Fox asked. "Ask the Generals." Dexter said. "They know who's going and if you are you might as well get the most of the time you've got left… survival IS NOT guaranteed." 


	12. War: The Introduction

"We'll launch attacks in three different areas." General Pepper said to the crowd of pilots. The giant docking bay was full of pilots that had been conscripted onto the front line. Most didn't mind but many hated the idea of going to attack a force now named as extremely powerful. Star Fox were watching the briefing from the General about the mission there were going to take on and hoping that they would live to tell about it.  
  
"I don't think I can face them Fox." Krystal said standing next to Fox. "Then you stay here," Fox said, "I want you to be safe at least." Krystal looked down at the floor and thought about all she had been through. She then looked back at Fox and held his hand. "I change my mind," Krystal said forcing the fear away, "if we don't make it I want us to be together when it happens." Fox stroked Krystal's hand with his fingers trying to say that it's going to be all right no matter what happened.  
  
It was early morning for the Katina army. The front line including Star Fox began gearing up in the docking bay for the attack. The large docking bay echoed the sound of the voices of the team leaders talking to their assigned team members. Engineers were working on the green winged fighters that would be sent into battle.  
  
A lieutenant then walked onto the metal balcony. The voices fell silent but the sounds of workmen kept going. "The Generals would like to address you." He said and General Goat and Pepper then took to the centre.  
  
"Alright everyone," General Goat said to the pilots below, "today is the day that our strength is put into question." "This threat caught us by surprise and we have suffered the consequences," General Pepper said, "now it is time to hit back and make it up to our future. I called you up for this fight because you are the finest men and woman we have. We must take back Corneria and push the zombies off the planet. If we succeed, you will all go down it history as… "The Rising."  
  
An old Cornerian escapee was asleep on a park bench outside using an old blanket for warmth and was wakened by the sound of fighters flying across the sky and heading towards the infested Corneria. He looked up with his eyes full of prayers hoping that he would be able to go home again.  
  
A large armada of Katina green wings were flying through space towards the grey and scarlet coloured Corneria. Leading them was the Star Fox team arwings and the Great Fox.  
  
"All aircraft report in." Fox said over the com. "Peppy here." "Falco is A-OK." "Slippy here, I'm fine" "Krystal here, love you Fox."  
  
"Katina special forces report." Bill asked over his com. "Dexter standing by." "Larry standing by." "Oliver here." "Rachel here, I'm OK." "Gary here."  
  
"My ships are ready sir." Said Bill's voice over the com system at Katina's central command. "And so are the rest," said General Pepper. "We have faith in you all."  
  
"Mind if I have some fun?" Said a female voice over the system. Then a pink ship flew into the crowd of green wings and arwings. "Katt!?!" Falco said instantly, "What are you doing here?" "Hey! This is my Lylat System too you know." Katt fired back at Falco. "OK guys, this is it." Fox said. The ship went into formation. Suddenly Dexter caught sight of something grey heading straight for the armada. "Uh?" Dexter said worryingly, "Fox, what's that?"  
  
Suddenly a horde of zombies came into sight and they looked more horrible then ever. They were flying towards them in thousands. They all had what looked like bat wings on their backs and their left arms were horribly disfigured with a green glow coming out of the ends.  
  
"Attack!" Fox said and the ships went straight into battle with the flying dead. All was now on the line. 


	13. Failed

The living and the dead were now at war. The flying horde of the dead and the fearless armada of space fighters blended together and the battle started. Lasers began shooting out of all directions. The giant masses of zombies looked to not stand a chance and were being blown to pieces as they took the impact of the shots.  
  
"Get lost you piece of meat!" Falco yelled as a flying zombie grabbed onto his wing and began tearing off the metal plating. Falco then did a barrel roll and shook off the zombie and tore off its head with his spinning wings.  
  
"Make way for Katt!" Katt said he she flew through a fleet of stone-grey corpses and shot them all leaving a mass of floating mess of red, green and yellow ooze and grey flesh.  
  
"Incoming zombies from all directions." Dexter said as he looked at the red dots on his radar closing into the middle.  
  
"I see more zombies coming from Corneria. We're outnumbered!" Slippy said in a panic.  
  
General Pepper watched from Katina's command base at the events taking place. You could see that Pepper was extremely worried and the sweat was visibly clear coming down his face. "I can't take anymore of this," He said to General Goat, "this is worse than the Andross invasion." "Stay strong Pepper," Goat said back to him, "if we can handle Andross then we can handle this."  
  
"I've got some trouble here!" Larry said while being followed by a mass of zombies. Suddenly a group came up from in front of him and joined together to form some kind of web. "What the…?" Larry said before crashing into the web and blowing up on impact. "LARRY!" Dexter cried.  
  
"We can't cope like this guys." Fox said. "Yes we can we just need too…" Oliver said before being destroyed by a horde of grey monsters.  
  
"That's it," Fox yelled, "everyone pull out! PULL OUT NOW!" 


	14. The Aftermath

One the night of return, Katina was a hanger full of sadness and grief. The families of those killed in the first battle between the living and the dead joined together for a small memorial. No bodies or remains were recovered so the only thing they could do was put up pictures of their loved ones on a wall. A priest stood by the side wearing a white gown and saying prayers for those who lost their lives and the relations they left behind. Fox watched from his sleeping quarter's window in the Great Fox down into the hanger outside. The hanger was big enough so the Star Fox mother ship was able to fit inside. He was finally able to change into something else instead his Star Fox uniform. He was wearing a dressing gown and a pair of red shorts. He finally couldn't stand the site of the grieving relatives anymore and shut the windows.  
  
He walked over to his double bed that now had Krystal asleep in it. He took off his green gown, placed it on the hook on the wall and got into bed with his new wife. He puts his arms around Krystal and kissed her on the cheek before settling down to sleep for the first time in 48 hours.  
  
Falco was outside the Great Fox in the hanger. He was about to go back inside before he saw Dexter. Dexter was in tears after losing all his friends in the fight and was trying to smoke his pain away with a cigarette. The only people that made it back were Star Fox, Katt Monroe, Bill Grey and Dexter. Katt had left Katina to warn the Zoness forces about the zombie epidemic.  
  
Falco walked up to him. He could tell that Dexter was extremely upset as he could see the tear running down his face and the heavy amounts of cigarette smoke he was breathing out. "How ya doing?" Falco asked. "That team was all I had," Dexter sadly said, "I've got nothing else left now." He took the last puff of this cigarette and tossed it away. It fell on the metal floor and went out. Dexter watched the smoke from the remains of the cigarette go into the air before turning back to Falco. "There's no stopping it now." Dexter said wiping the tears away, "those god damn things are gonna consume the Lylat System. After that it'll want to take over the entire universe." "Can you warn your home planet?" Falco asked. "Already tried. They say they aren't buying it and apparently it's not their problem." "Damn." Falco said turning his head to the hanger door.  
  
Peppy and Slippy were up on the Great Fox control deck. The hologram projector in the centre of the deck displayed the Lylat System. Slippy tapped some buttons on the Great Fox computer as Peppy looked at a zombie blood sample under a microscope. "Where did you get that sample?" Slippy asked. "I took it from the Katina Army's forensic lab." Peppy said. "What!?" Slippy asked shockingly, "All the stuff in there's not allowed to be taken! You could get sent to prison for this!" "Well I might as well take it. Extreme times, call for extreme measures." Peppy shot back. "Can you pass me that normal blood sample?" Slippy picked up the slide containing the blood and was about to throw it to him. "No! No! No!" Peppy yelled, "Don't throw it! Give it to me!" "You said pass." Slippy said giving him the slide. "Youths." Peppy muttered under his breath. He then placed the slide under the microscope so that the zombie and normal blood were visible. Suddenly the zombie blood cells jumped from the slide and grabbed hold of the normal cells changing them to look like the red, green and yellow cells. "Unbelievable." Peppy said quietly just about catching the attention of Slippy.  
  
Dexter for the first time walked up to his living space alone. The room was dark and really quiet but everything was the same. The beds hanging on the left wall were there as always and the kitchen worktops and pool table were there also. Dexter was about to get ready for bed until he heard a knock at his door. He opened it finding an officer there. "Dexter Helms?" he asked. "Yeah that's me." He replied. "Orders from General Goat, you've been put on special assignment for tomorrow." "Do I look ready to go on special assignment?" Dexter argued. "Sorry Helms but this is a mission you can't back down from." The officer said. "Report to the General at 0900 hours and not a minute later." "Fine, fine." Dexter said moping and shut the door as the officer left.  
  
"Special assignment? This can't be good." 


	15. New Hope?

The next morning Dexter readied himself for meeting General Goat. This kind of meeting would have had Dexter all excited but this time he felt like not going. He wore his usual outfit of the dark green Katina Air Force jacket and matching jumpsuit. He was going to spend the remaining minutes he had left looking in the mirror until his phone starting ringing.  
  
Dexter walked over to the wall where it was hung and answered it. "Hello?" Dexter asked. "Hi Dexter it's Fox." said the voice coming back to him." "Hey," Dexter replied, "What can I do for ya?"  
  
A few minutes later Dexter found himself at the double doors of the General's office. He knocked and then waited. "Enter." came a reply from General Goat and he did. Dexter stood in the middle of the room just a few metres away from the General's desk. "You requested to see me sir?" The General looked up at Dexter and removed his glasses. "Yes I did." he replied, "Take a seat." Dexter took a seat in front of the General's desk.  
  
"Dexter," the General began, "do you know why I called you here?" "About a special assignment sir?" Dexter said. "Exactly, this is the most valuable piece of information that we have been given. We have found out about a secret space station located outside the Lylat System. From that station we have found strong signals of zombie activity coming from within it. I want you to gather a team and go search the facility." "Yes sir." Dexter said as he got up. "May I ask, what team to you have in mind?" General Goat asked. "Us." came a call from the double doors. Fox, Falco, Krystal, Peppy and Slippy were stood there. The General stood with his hands behind his back examining the Star Fox team and Dexter. "Very well," Goat said, "but I can't pay you for this mission at the moment." "Don't worry General," Fox said, "saving the system from destruction will be enough payment for us."  
  
Suddenly an officer pushed his way through the doors startling everyone. He was out of breath from what looked to be caused by running from one side of the base to the other. "Sir!" he said, "our radars have just picked up incoming from Corneria's direction. It's a zombie attack." The General slammed his fists onto his deck. "Put up the defences and put everyone on alert!" "Yes sir!" he officer said running out of the office. "Get out of here Star Fox!" General Goat said. "Search the space station and see if you can find any answers before it's too late!"  
  
It wasn't long until the Great Fox flew out of Katina's airspace but as they left they saw a huge horrific site. It looked like decaying flesh stuck together in huge balls floating through space and were approaching at a rapid speed. Dexter watched from a window on the ship as they left for the space station.  
  
The Great Fox docking bay was quiet and nothing could be heard besides the low humming of the Great Fox engine. Dexter Helms was the only person down there. The rest of the team were elsewhere around the ship that they called their home. He walked around looking at the arwings that were parked along the bay.  
  
The ships were better than the last batch of fighters Star Fox used. They were faster and more powerful. Lasers, engine, ship plating and ship controls. Everything had been completely upgraded. "Sweet." Dexter said quietly too himself. He took a box of cigarettes from out of the inside pocket of his Katina Air Force jacket. Then he took a lighter from his side pocket in his jumpsuit. He put the cigarette in his mouth and was about to light up.  
  
"Don't even think about it!" Peppy was stood at the docking bay door. "What?" asked Dexter, "it's just a cigarette." "I don't care," Peppy yelled, "There's fuel in here and I don't want the ship ablaze because you need nicotine." OK, OK," Dexter said putting his cigarettes and lighter back in his pocket, "I'm sorry. Man, do you always have to be so uptight?" "First of all never call me man," Peppy said walking up to him, "and to answer your question yes. It stops people like you from causing accidents." Dexter turned away from Peppy and looked around the docking bay again.  
  
All fell silent as Dexter looked around at the metal walls and ceilings of the docking and Peppy turned to look at his arwing. Dexter then turned to look at Peppy again. Peppy had suddenly looked saddened. Dexter began to get suspicious. "OK," Dexter said, "now tell me what's really bugging you." Peppy turned his head to face Dexter. "Look at me kid," Peppy said, "I'm getting to old for this. I make a fuss about everything." Peppy climbed onto his arwing and sat with his back to the closed cockpit. Dexter stood with his thumbs hanging onto the insides of his side pockets. "I feel like it was only yesterday that I had the flying skills of a 20 year old but ever since that fight with the zombies I can't bring myself to say that I'm a good pilot anymore." Dexter walked up and looked up at him. "Look," Dexter began, "so we lost one battle but that doesn't mean we're going to lose the war. And besides you're a great despite the fact you are 60." "I'm 50." Peppy said correcting Dexter, "OK 50," Dexter said.  
  
Krystal then walked into the docking bay. "We're almost there," she said, "Fox wants us all at the command deck." "We hear ya," Dexter responded and Dexter, Peppy and Krystal walked out of the bay once again leaving it silent.  
  
The Star Fox team and Dexter gathered around the hologram projector in the control deck. Showing was a hologram of the space station. "The General's forwarded us information on the station," Fox said, "The station has been built on a large meteor." The hologram image turned around showing more of the metal ball like structure. "So this must be where they stored the bodies of the test subjects." Slippy said. "Exactly," Fox said. "So what do we do? Fly in and destroy it?" "Unfortunately it's not that easy," Fox said in a lower tone of voice, "the station is guarded by a plasma shield. The only way to take it out will be to go into the station and destroy the generators inside." "Wait?" Dexter interrupted, "you mean we have to go into that zombie infested station?" "Yes," Fox answered, "so arm up and prepare for a fight." "Now hang on," Dexter said, "I'm not going into a large zombie infested facility!" "Well then," Fox said leaning on the side of his captain's chair, "have any other ideas?"  
  
Back on Katina the base was put on high alert. Red lights and alarms filled the corridors of the army facility and armoured soldiers were running around trying to get organised for a fight. One soldier ran down a corridor as fast as he could. Around him the preparations for battle. It was a mixture of people with a dog running fast with a shotgun and a skunk running with papers. The soldier finally reached the control room where people in black trousers, light blue shirts and dark blue ties ran around control panels and telling troops over communicators where I positions themselves. The control room was a dark room with the monitor screen giving most of the lighting to the room. A huge screen above the controls and personal showed a satellite image of the large dead flesh ball coming towards the planet.  
  
The soldier then ran to a table where General Pepper and Goat were standing. "Are the defence turrets up?" General Goat asked a blue and back dressed worker. "Yes sir." He said. "What's the ground situation?" Goat asked. "He have men surrounding the base and in the base sir." "Good," Pepper said, "keep the facility covered and don't leave a piece of land unmarked." The control room worker nodded and ran up to a console. "Sirs," the soldier asked. The General's turned to face him. "We have a special escape tunnel going through to the other side of the planet. If you hurry we can put you on board before the zombies make impact." "We're not going anywhere." Pepper said. "But sirs…" "You heard Pepper," Goat snapped, "if you want to make yourself useful you can escort us to the armoury." "Yes sir." Said the soldier and they left. 


	16. Touchdown

"So exactly how are we suppose to get into the base of it's covered by a plasma shield?" Dexter asked Fox. "There's a train complex at the other side of a meteor," Fox said back, "we'll board the train and that will take us to the base." "But what if we meet up the zombies?" Dexter asked again. "Then we'll just have to face them." "I was afraid you'd say that."  
  
The Great Fox touched down on the meteor surface and the large docking bay door opened up. From out of it came Fox, Falco, Dexter and Krystal wearing oxygen masks over their faces. Fox looked around scanning a high-tech assault rifle around where he looked. He was also armed with grenades. Falco held his rifle against his shoulder and looked at the base ahead. It was still a huge site to see even when you were only a few miles away from it. Krystal was trying to get used to the high-tech sniper rifle she was carrying. Dexter was armed with a shotgun and was carrying on his belt a vicious looking combat knife. It had smaller blades coming from the big blade.  
  
"How are we for radio contact?" Fox said testing the microphone inside his visor. "I'm fine." Falco said. "I'm OK." Said Krystal. "I'm alright too." Dexter said. "Perfect," Fox responded.  
  
"Fox this is Peppy and Slippy, do you copy?" Peppy asked from the Great Fox over the radio system. "Fox here," he said, "I hear you." "OK, we're going to pull away from the base and wait for you to take down the shield generators. Once they've been taken out Slippy and me can take out the base's weak points using the ship's cannons."  
  
"Can I ask a question?" Falco said playing with his visor, "why do we have to wear these masks? Didn't you say the meteor had air on it?" "You mean the artificial atmosphere? I can explain that," Slippy said over the mic, "the zombies must have tampered the base's atmosphere control station so no oxygen can be kept within but they didn't turn off the artificial gravity."  
  
"Thanks guys," Fox said, "now move the ship away and we'll call you in when we're ready." "Rodger that," Peppy said as the Great Fox moved away, "good luck guys. Great Fox out." "Alright," Fox said to Dexter, Krystal and Falco, "let's move!"  
  
Fox, Falco, Krystal and Dexter ran up to outside the grounds of the security train complex. The outer grounds on the opposite side of the fence were quiet with nothing to see but the train station and the red sandy ground it rested on. "It's quiet." Fox said. "Too quiet." Falco said pointing around his rifle in places. "There's the security train across the grounds." Krystal said pointing to it. "Then what are we waiting for?" Dexter said, "let's go." The team went through the gate in the fence and ran across the train complex's grounds unaware of the thing watching them from behind a giant rock. 


	17. Signals

Silence had crept over Katina as it waited for the arrival of the giant ball of rotting flesh. The soldiers heavily equipped with guns and armour waited silently for the enemy. Only the sound of the wind blowing around the landscape of sand could be heard. At the top of the pyramid structure of the Katina army base General Pepper and General Goat waited along with the thousands of troops who were on the ground. "It won't be long now." Goat said to his Cornerian counter-part. "I know, I know." Pepper said back.  
  
Back at the meteor the Great Fox circled around with Slippy, Peppy and ROB at the controls. "I'm going to get an update," Slippy said to Peppy.  
  
As for the rest of the team, Fox, Falco, Dexter and Krystal had entered the train complex. The interior was dark and made completely of metal. Falco turned on his torch at the front of his rifle and pointed it in all directions hoping to find something. Fox and Dexter walked up to the giant train, which looked to have the same textures as the walls and ceiling of the station. Krystal was the last person to walk through the large door. Suddenly she heard a huge grunting noise coming from outside. She froze and turned around quickly pointing her sniper rifle outside the door but found nothing but the footprints that they had left behind on the red dusty ground.  
  
"Guys? We found it." Fox said calling back the team members. Krystal turned around and completely forgot about the noise behind her. Dexter, Fox, Falco and Krystal gathered up to look at the train. Suddenly Fox's communicator went off. "Fox here," he said holding his wrist-com up to his face. "Hi Fox it's Slippy," Slippy said on the other side, "how are you guys doing?" "Pretty well," Fox responded, "we found the train and we're gonna ride it down to the facility. We'll call back when…" Suddenly funny noises sounding like moaning and groaning came over the transmission. "Huh!?" Fox said, "what's going on?" Suddenly the weird noises stopped. "Fox!? Fox!?" Slippy said panicking, "Are you OK?" "We're fine. What happened?" "I don't know I'll look into it, Slippy out."  
  
Slippy cut the transmission and looked at Peppy who also overheard the groans. "What was that?" Slippy asked Peppy with confusion on his face. "I don't know Slippy," Peppy said, "We've never had these type of communication problems before." Peppy then pressed a few buttons on his console. "I've got a recording of it here. I'll analyse it and figure out what it is."  
  
On the other side of the Lylat system Katt Monroe landed on Zoness. She was greeted by a few soldiers he she landed. The planet was still recovering from the pollution that Andross's forces had dumped on the planet during the Lylat War. The water was still green and green fog had started rising from it. "Hi boys," he said to the soldiers, "mind taking me to the General? We have trouble."  
  
Back on Katina a sudden rumbling was heard and the clouds in the sky began to part. "Prepare for impact!" yelled a commander of his brigade of soldier. The soldiers all loaded their guns and prepared themselves for a fight. Suddenly the giant ball came down and crashed into the ground a fair distance from the Katina base. The impact shook the ground violently knocking some soldiers off their feet. Up in the top of the base the Generals watched each with a shotgun in hand. A band of technicians and personal sat at small computers and radios sending tactical data to the soldiers. One of them who was a badger wearing headphones heard this strange noise coming from his headphones. "Sir?" he said to General Goat. "Yes?" responded Goat. "This sounds strange but I'm hearing strange..."  
  
"...noises coming through the frequency again." Peppy said to Slippy. "What could they be Peppy?" "Well from what I'm seeing hear," Peppy said tapping his screen, "these noises sound make information being amplified and transmitted through space." "And it's coming from the meteor?" Slippy asked. "Yes from the base to be exact."  
  
"Peppy this is Fox. Do you read?" Fox said over his wrist-com. "Loud and clear Fox." "OK Peppy we're aboard the security train and we're taking it down to the base." "Excellent." Peppy said, "Great job guys!" Slippy said excitedly. "But be careful, powerful frequencies are coming from the base and I think something might be in there causing them." "I hear you Peppy." Fox said. "Peppy? Can you pin point where in the base the signals are coming from?" Krystal asked. "Let me check," the line went silent for a while, "yes I can," Peppy finally said, "the position is..." Suddenly fizzing noises took over the wrist-coms. "What the?" Falco said. "It must be the tunnel," Dexter said looking out of the open doors of the train, "it must have plating that jams transmissions."  
  
"Fox? I've lost you. Fox!" Peppy said over the microphone. "Forget it Peppy," Slippy said pointing to a map of the meteor, "According to this the train tunnel has communicator jammers all over it." "Damn," Peppy said, "I hope they're alright."  
  
The train carrying Krystal, Fox, Falco and Dexter moved down the tunnel. It was quiet with nothing but the automatic engine and the movement of the train echoing through the tunnel. "Are we there yet?" Falco asked impatiently. "Just a bit further." Dexter said to Falco. Suddenly a thumping noise was heard on the roof of the train. "What was that?" Krystal asked holding up her sniper rifle. Then a giant claw smashed through the metal roof. "Looks like we've got company!" Falco said pointing his assault rifle at the giant arm. 


	18. We're in

Falco fired some shots into the grey muscled arm. It roared and ripped away the rest of the coach's roof. A huge zombie about 15 feet high and with an immortal build stared down at the Star Fox team and Dexter with it evil scarlet eyes. It then lifted it's huge arm ready to strike again but Dexter pumped some shotgun rounds into it's abs causing it to fall down off the train. "I hope that's the last we see of him." Dexter said reloading his weapon.  
  
Back on Katina the battle had begun with zombies fighting against the Katina forces. Green Wing fighters tried to bomb the masses of zombies but were taken down by flying zombies grabbing the ships forcing them to crash into the desert sand. General Pepper looked through his binoculars and watched the Katina army trying to force back the zombies to no avail. They just ran into the zombies and were devoured by the grey monsters. "This isn't working." General Goat said. "Give it more time." Pepper responded. "Sir," said one of the soldiers manning a computer, "we're losing to many fighters, on the ground and in the air. We have to call a retreat." "No!" Pepper said angrily, "we retreat now those things will take us all."  
  
Back at the meteor, the train had arrived at the station in the spherical base. It stopped by the side of the station platform before the doors opened and formed into ramps going down onto the platform. The Star Fox team and Dexter ran off train and onto the platform. They then held positions behind some metal pillars. Dexter took the first one to the left, Falco took the next one on the right and Fox and Krystal shared the last one.  
  
Krystal then looked around the pillar and scanned the area using the sniper scope. She couldn't see anything. Then she checked the high ceiling that looked to stretch 100 feet high or maybe even higher then that. "All clear." whispered Krystal. "Check." Fox said acknowledging Krystal.  
  
Fox gave Falco and Dexter a thumb signal and they all came out from behind. Suddenly they heard footsteps coming from the corridor ahead of them. "What's that?" Falco asked quietly. "I don't know," Fox asked, "quick, hide beside the wall." The team put themselves flat across the wall and waited for whatever so coming to arrive. Suddenly a few zombies came into view. They walked passed the opening and continued down the corridor. All of a sudden Dexter dropped his packet of cigarettes and lighter. The group then stopped. The team froze was they saw the stone-grey corpses stand perfectly still after the sounds of falling cigarettes and the metal impact noise that followed on the solid floor.  
  
A long and frightening wait took place before finally the zombies moved away and down the other corridor. The team sighed with relief. "For goodness sake Dexter," Fox said, "you could have got us killed." "I told you cigarettes were bad for you." Falco said walking off with the team "A tod' ya' cigarettes wer' ba' for ya." Dexter said mimicking what Falco had said in a childish way.  
  
Peppy, Slippy and ROB were standing in front of the hologram projector with a sound wave display showing the strange audio signals coming from the meteor. "ROB," Peppy asked," do you have any idea what this signal does?" "No I do not," ROB said through his electronic voice, "this type of sound is unfamiliar to me." Suddenly Peppy and Slippy heard a noise coming from the right-hand door of the control deck. It was a small bang sound that echoed on the deck and through the hallways connecting to it. Slippy and Peppy looked at each other before looking at the door where the sound came from. "I'll go." Peppy said reaching for his sidearm and getting out of his chair. "No," Slippy said stopping him, "Let me see what it is." Slippy then grabbed his laser gun and walked slowly towards the doors. He opened the middle a little so that he could see what was inside and point his gun through it. "Well," Peppy asked quietly, "what is it?" 


	19. What was that?

Slippy peered into the crack of the door and pointing his gun through so he was ready to shoot. Nothing. All there was was a bucket and mop. The mop now was lying on the floor reaching out to the wall which it had been originally standing on. "False alarm Peppy," Slippy said lowering his blaster.  
  
The rest of the Star Fox team along with Dexter were carefully walking along the remains of the asteroid base. The interiors around the base looked to have been ravaged by the zombies. It was grey, black and white with damaged wall, computer equipment, papers and other things lying around or smashed into the walls. "Does anyone here no longer fear hell?" asked Dexter as they walked passed the destruction. "I lost that fear when we were to the transport ship." Krystal responded.  
  
Falco then spotted something on the floor. He bent over to pick it up and held it up for everyone to see. "Take a look at this." Falco said wiping off the dust. It was a piece of torn cloth along with a plastic tag no bigger than a credit card. "It looks like this came off somebody's jacket," Fox said, "This card on it looks like a ID tag or something." "Dr. V. Taylor," Dexter said reading the name on the card, "Whoever he is he's one of those things now." Suddenly a glass smashing noise came from down the corridor they were in. "What was that?" Krystal asked quickly. "Sounded like it came from that door." Falco said pointing his gun in the direction of the noise.  
  
Back on Katina the war was still going but zombies were overpowering the huge forces of the Katina Army. Missiles were launched from the base and thumped into the ground with a massive explosion sending zombies flying away from the newly formed craters. "The missiles will hold them off for a while but we only have a limited supply." Said General Goat. "They have to hold them off Goat, they just have to!"  
  
Back on the asteroid the Star Fox team and Dexter walked up to a windowed door labelled "LAB 105" in big black letters. The window though had been covered in some kind of grey sludge and whatever has behind the window couldn't be seen. Fox went up to the door a slowly turned the handle. Dexter loaded another shotgun round into his gun and had it ready for anything that came through. Fox tried the fling the door open but it was stuck. "Huh?" Fox said, "That's odd." "What's odd? The door's locked." Dexter said grabbing the handle and shaking the door. "No it isn't," said Krystal inspecting the door lock under the handle. "Let me try." Falco said grabbing the handle and ramming his shoulder into the door. After a few attempts the door slowly opened.  
  
The lab was covered in some kind of grey ooze that was all over the walls, tables, floors and ceilings. All the science equipment either covered in ooze or destroyed beyond use. Even more strange was that a few huge lumps of grey were found sitting on the floors or on the tables giving an insecure feeling to the room. The team walked into the room standing on the parts of the floor that weren't covered in grey stuff. "Something's not right here." Falco said after taking in the atmosphere of the room. "You think?" Dexter said back to Falco. Fox carefully looked around the room and then looked under a few tables. Krystal walked up or a chart on the wall showing a number of graphs. "I think this is some of the research they were doing with the bodies." Krystal said following the line chart with her finger. "Barbarians." Krystal said ripping one of the charts off the wall.  
  
Dexter then noticed something coming from a cupboard at the corner of the room. He just caught the moment when a hand shut the door. "Hey guys?" Dexter said catching the attention of everyone, "I think I just saw something." Dexter raised his shotgun and walked up so the cupboard. "Cover me." Dexter said as he put his hand on the door. Krystal put her rifle and her shoulder ready to shoot as did the other Star Fox team members. Dexter paused for a few second and then quickly flung the door open revealing a white-coated figure with his arms hiding away his face. "Kill it!" Falco shouted.  
  
"PLEASE!!! NO!!! I MEAN YOU NO HARM!!!" 


	20. Dr Anderson I presume?

Back on Katina and the missiles being launched from the base were beginning to have an effect on the ground. The ground forces found themselves standing still watching the random ground explosions blowing away at the million-strong zombie army. "It's working!" General Pepper said looking through his binoculars. "For now it is," General Goat said looking on, "we still have to deal with the remaining hordes then the supplies run out."  
  
Meanwhile on the meteor, "PLEASE! DON'T HURT ME!" said the white-coated man Star Fox had found. "Whoa," Dexter said lowering his shotgun, "you can talk? Who are you? KEEP YOUR HANDS OVER YOUR HEAD!" Dexter yelled pointing his gun at him again. "I…I'm Dr. Andrew…Anderson." He responded. Dr. Anderson put his hand behind his head so he could show his face. He was a bull with his horns bent down and a grey face. He wore a lab-coat with a credit card-sized badge, a light brown and tartan button shirt with a green tie and a pair out grey trousers with a black belt. "Your skin is grey! How you we know your not one of those zombies?" Falco snapped pointing his rifle at him. "Alright guys, that's enough!" Krystal said pushing down Falco's gun. "He can't be one of them. His eyes are still normal." "Exactly." Dr. Anderson said lowering his arms.  
  
"So what are you doing here?" Fox asked. "I'm one of the many researchers here at the research station. I was ordered by General Pepper to examine the deceased test subjects. I job was to extract the chemicals that the subjects had been exposed to. Unfortunately most of the treatments that we tried to give the bodies gave horrible effects resulting in the bodies it evolve into something even more horrible." "So why didn't you stop?" Asked Dexter. "We pleaded with the administration to stop the tests and that was when Miss Romaro intervened and kept the tests going. After time had passed the so-called zombies sprang to life and began to tear the base apart.  
  
"But I don't get it?" Fox said, "How have you been surviving here?" "I've been hiding away from the zombies in very nook and cranny on the station," Dr. Anderson said climbing out of the cupboard, "I must have looped the entire station at least 5 times just to get away from those…things." Dexter took the card he found earlier and showed it to Dr. Anderson. "We found this," Dexter said to him. "Do you know what it is?" "Yes," he said taking the card from him, "it's Dr. Taylor's security card. Did you find him? Is he alive?" "We don't know." Fox said to Anderson.  
  
Dr. Anderson slowly walked up to a lab table and looked at the grey ooze and the destruction around him. "Damn!" he yelled banging the table with both his fists. "My science team and I were fools! This all happened because the money and the greed of playing God! I was so determined to make a difference that I stooped to the lowest levels possible."  
  
There was a moment of silence before Fox stepped up to the scientist. "Well now you have a chance to set things right," Fox said, "tell us how we can stop these things." "It's not that simple," he said turning to the team, "these beasts seem to be showing some kind of mutations. First they're running around killing people and then they are walking around like they're guarding something." "It sounds like they've got something to hide," Falco said, "but what?"  
  
"That's what we've gotta find out," Dexter said, "Can you be our guide around the base old man?" "Sure," Anderson said, "but you'll have to excuse me. I twisted my foot trying to escape a zombie horde." Suddenly a cracking noise was heard. "What was that?" Fox asked looking around the room.  
  
"Uh, guys?" Krystal said worryingly and pointing to one of the big lumps of grey ooze. Suddenly a huge muscled zombie, like what they saw on the train, ripped out of the lump and roared at the people in it sight.  
  
"OH, SHIT!" Dexter said opening fire. 


	21. Evolution

As Dexter fired upon the huge beast that stood in front of him, other monsters began to immerge from the grey oozed lumps. "Run for it!" Fox said leading the team out of the lab. Fox, Krystal, Dexter and Falco left accept for Dr Anderson who was amazed by what he saw. "Fascinating, would you look at that?" he said. Dexter then came back from around the door and pulled Anderson through it to his surprise.  
  
Back on Katina, the last of the ground missiles hit the battlefield outside the base. He explosion echoed across the desert backgrounds and then all went quiet. The dust from all the explosions rose into the air and created a foggy atmosphere for the Katina forces on the front line. A badger held his rifle tightly around the handles and exercised his index finger on the trigger. His visor on his grey helmet like the other animals around him reflected the rising smoke and dust in front of him. General Pepper and General Goat looked on from the pyramid-shaped base. "Is it over?" Asked Pepper. "I don't know," Goat said back to him.  
  
Back on the Great Fox, Peppy and Slippy worked on re-establishing contact with Fox and the others inside the base. "There must be a way of reaching them," Peppy said tapping buttons on his computer. "There is," Slippy said, "I've been checking over the plans of the station. There's a communication sector near the corpse holding chambers."  
  
Slippy tapped a few buttons to bring the plans up on the hologram. Once again the station revealed itself on the hologram as the metal ball on a huge amount of rock. Slippy got up from his seat and pointed to the near-centre of the ball. "It should be located here on the 19th inner layer. If they can get there they can shut down the jamming devices around the station." "But how do we know they'll get over there?" Peppy asked continuing to press buttons. "Prey for it to happen," Slippy said to in lower voice, "that's all we can do."  
  
On the station, the other Star Fox team members, Dexter and Dr. Anderson were on the run from the horde of zombies following them. The zombies were mixed from normal bodied to giant titans with god-like muscles. A few metres ahead was a right turning across a long glass bridge with a metal floor leading to another inner-layer of the base. "I've got an idea," Fox said, "everyone take out your explosives." The team ran onto the bridge and took out anything they had. Krystal pulled a C4 explosive from her right-leg pocket; Fox and Falco grabbed some grenades out of their backpacks, Dexter took out a timed mine and Dr Anderson reached into his lab coat and handed Dexter a small metal flask. "Er, could this be any use?" Anderson asked. Dexter took the flask and smelt the alcohol that had previously been in it. "Damn," Dexter said, "I can't blame you for drinkin' it but how, I'm not even gonna ask."  
  
Suddenly the zombie horde came around the corner. Nothing was on the bridge except for Fox's yellow backpack. The zombies came onto the bridge and one of the normal zombies caught the scent of the strong alcohol coming from the bag. He walked up to the bag, growled at it and then…BOOM! The whole glass bridge was blown away and shadowed from sight by the explosions and black smoke. The team and Dr Anderson watched from behind a corner. "That takes care of them." Falco said smiling a little. "For now," Dr Anderson said cleaning some splattered blood off his horn with a tissue, "They'll be a lot more of those things around here soon. The creatures are starting to evolve a lot more quickly then a calculated they would." "At least we know a weakness now," Dexter said as there walked down the corridor, "They're curious about strong-smelling substances."  
  
The team rested in an office further down the hall. It had been ravaged by the zombies with papers on the floor, overturned desks, filing cabinets destroyed and florescent lights hanging down off the ceiling and flickering as they hung. Fox stood watch at one door window along with Falco who guarded at another door on the other side of the room. Krystal sat down leaning against a wall with Dexter and Anderson opposite her on the other wall. The room was quiet with everyone either looking around the semi-dark room or staring down at the blue carpet. Fox then walked over and sat beside Krystal. "You OK?" Fox asked. "Yeah," Krystal said, "I bet this wasn't your idea of a honeymoon." "No." Fox said. Fox then held Krystal's hand and then they both looked at each other. "Listen Krystal," Fox said, "if somehow we make it out of this, I swear to you that I'm going to take good care of you, and I'll be the best husband I can possibly can." "Thanks Fox," Krystal said. "I love you."  
  
Back on Katina the silence continued with troops standing and waiting to see what had become to their rivals. The dust and smoke was still rising into the air and had now started to blow over the forces and the base. General Pepper looked on from the base through his binoculars. He followed his binoculars around the battlefield watching some soldiers helping out injured comrades and seeing medics calling attention for other soldiers lying motionless on the ground. Shockingly he saw huge amounts of blood staining the desert for miles around.  
  
He saw one medic checking the pulse of a soldier with deep scratches all over his chest. The black body-armour that he had been wearing was now non-existent on his chest and his bare skin was showing. His fur shaved away along with everything else he may have been wearing. Finally the medic gave up, checked his wristwatch and placed a black sheet over him covering his face and injuries. He was dead.  
  
General Pepper put down his binoculars and turned to face his Katina counter-part. "I think it's over." Pepper said to him quietly. "Sirs?" a soldier said from his radio post behind them, "we've got confirmations. One thousand men dead and five thousand others wounded." "Thank you soldier," Goat said back to him, "keep monitoring the ground." "Yes sir!" the soldier said returning to his station. "Well I'm glad it's over," Goat said, "now we can move on to the next order of business." Suddenly a soldier grabbed the Cornerian General and placed handcuffs on him.  
  
"HEY! WHAT'S THE MEANING OF THIS!?!" "General Pepper, you're under arrest. Take him away!" 


	22. Bouncing Back

Back on the Great Fox, Peppy and Slippy had a breakthrough in breaching the station's security network. "OK," Peppy said tapping away on his computer, "what do we have access to?" "Oxygen levels, atmosphere control…" Suddenly Slippy found an option that made him smile. "What are you smiling about?" Peppy asked. "Would you believe the com channel control security options?" Slippy said trying to access it from his computer. "It'll take time to crack it open but with it we could regain contact with Fox."

Back on the meteor, the Star Fox team, Dexter and Anderson were on the move again. They ran down a blue, semi-circle shaped corridor with many doors on each side. Suddenly the bar lights running across the top of the corridor went out followed by a winding down noise. "What was that?" Falco asked looking around the dark corridor only being able to make out the outline of Krystal's face. "It looks like the power generators have failed." Krystal said taking off her backpack and looking through it. "Everyone get your oxygen tanks back on," Fox said doing the same thing as Krystal, "The oxygen levels in the station will be plummeting because of the power failure."

"Whoa, this isn't good." Slippy said tapping buttons. "What's the matter?" Peepy said looking over his shoulder. "The powers out and I've lost control of the base." Peppy suddenly had a thought. "Wouldn't that mean the jammers would have stopped?" Slippy turned to Peppy and broke a smile.

Back in the space station, the Star Fox team were equipped with their oxygen masks again. Dr Anderson was using a spare one that Fox packed for an emergency. "So what are we gonna do?" Falco asked Fox, "we can't stay here now." "Well we can either leave or…" "Or self-destruct the base!" Anderson said waving his index finger, "Yes, that just might do it." "Will it get rid of the zombies?" Krystal asked, "Yes it should…I hope." Anderson said, "If we go into the bases core we and re-power up the central computers we could set the self-destruct sequence." "Whoa! Hold on a second," Dexter said after Anderson, "As in "beep, beep, "BOOM!" or just "BOOM!"?" "That's the problem, I've never learned how to set the timer on the self-destruct sequence or if there is one."

"Sounds like you've got a lot to do Star Fox!" a crackly Slippy-sounding voice said over Fox's com. "Slippy!" Fox said into his wrist-com. "We've re-established contact with you Fox thanks to the power failure." Said Peppy. "Oh man I forgot! The power." Fox said looking around the corridor. "Yes, we've got to get the bases power generator to work again and order to start the sequence." Anderson said.

"Alright, I know what we should do," Fox said taking command, "Dexter, you take Falco and get to the power generator. Krystal and Dr Anderson, you come with me to the bases core. Peppy and Slippy, send me a copy of the space station map and stay in contact. STAR FOX WILL RISE AGAIN! 


	23. Captured by the ally?

Back on Katina, General Pepper was taken down to a prison sector underneath the base. The General, handcuffed and accompanied by two guards was taken into a cell and was tossed into it. The guards then shut the automatic grass door behind him and Pepper was left to stare at the solid yellow walls and the barred window in front of him.

General Goat then came down and looked at Pepper through the glass door. Pepper did not acknowledge his presence as he led on the floor looking at the barred window. Goat then turned to the prison guard who was sitting at a wooden table. "Keep a good eye on the prisoner," said Goat, "I'm sure a war crimes court would love to see the likes if him." "Yes sir!" the prison guard responded and the Katina General left the room.

Soon the Cornerian General, with his hands still cuffed behind his back, stood himself up using a chair in the corner in the cell. He stood facing the door and then tapped it with his nose getting the attention of the guard. "I demand to know what I'm being charged with!" Pepper shouted angrily. "You'll be told what soon!" the guard shouted back.

The General then turned around again to face the barred window looking out towards the sky and in his mind looking into the depths of space. He knew his only way out of the mess he created was now through the Star Fox team.

"Please hurry Star Fox," he said to himself. The guard overheard but ignored it and put his feet up on the table in front of him blocking Pepper from his vision.

"Please hurry…"


	24. The Uphill Struggle

Dexter and Falco had made their way to the power generator room. The room was huge with several giant turbines placed in formation around five to six lines deep each way.

"All right," Falco said, "This must be it," "But where's the big red button to light this oversized snow dome?" Dexter asked turning on the light at the end of his shotgun and moving it around the turbines. Suddenly, Dexter's light reflected on something that made a small scarlet glint. Dexter's sweat glands started to go into overdrive and Falco suddenly took notice. "LOOK OUT!" Dexter yelled as a giant, muscle-bound wolf zombie jumped out from the shadows and sent Falco and him in different directions across the huge room.

Meanwhile, Fox, Krystal and Dr Anderson made it to the space stations control room. They had gone deep into the centre of the multi-layered base and the room itself was cylinder shaped with monitors and computer stations scattered around on a giant platform. "Quickly, let's get to work!" Dr Anderson said walking towards a big computer station and tapping buttons hoping to get it to work. Krystal was about to walk towards Anderson but Fox gently grabbed her and moved her back to the double doors.

"Listen Krystal," Fox said to her with some softness in his voice, "I want you to get out of here. Go back to the surface and wait for Slippy and Peppy to pick you up." "No Fox," Krystal said to him back in the same, but slightly more forceful tone, "I'm staying with you." "Krystal," Fox said, "If something happens, if the self-destruct suddenly goes off or doesn't work…" She quickly moved herself closer to Fox and put her hands on his sides. "Fox, my love, whatever happens, I want to be there with you when it happens."

Fox was stuck. He couldn't face losing Krystal but would have died happy in the station if Krystal survived the explosion or the zombies. He then gave her a quick kiss on the lips and moved away. "Are you sure? " Fox asked. "Positive." Krystal said without leaving a gap of thought. "OK." Fox said. Krystal and Fox both ran towards Dr Anderson and the computer.

"Where's Dexter and Falco!?!" Dr Anderson yelled impatiently, "The computers are still not powered up!" Suddenly, a banging noise filled the cylinder room. All three of them froze to hear it start from the bottom, underneath the huge platform make its way to the top. Fox grabbed his laser from his side as did Krystal and slowly made their way to the middle of the platform. A few seconds past as Fox and Krystal waited for the silence of officially assert itself back to the room's atmosphere. Dr Anderson has still sat at the large computer station and just shrugged his shoulders. "Hmm," he said, "must have just been the…"

Suddenly a huge creature shot up from underneath the platform smashing its way through the middle sending Fox and Krystal sliding back towards the double doors. Fox got onto his hands and knees and slowly raised his head to look up at an abomination of a sight. Once again a scarlet eyed creature but this time it was ten times the size of a giant zombie. A slug-like creature with craws as sharp as knives and a huge screeching roar that almost bust the ear drums of the fox and vixen.

"So this is the source that Goat was talking about," Fox said quietly to himself as he readied his gun to begin the fight. He real uphill struggle was about to begin.


End file.
